eVisits: Medical Care Without Leaving Home

When the symptoms of an illness set in, getting to a doctor’s office is not always an easy option. For Kim, a mother in St. Mary’s City, getting her 22-year-old son with special needs to a doctor is especially difficult, but MedStar St. Mary’s Hospital in Leonardtown now offers eVisits, making her duties much easier.

Kim spends a lot of time in doctors’ offices with her son, so when he became ill during a holiday weekend, she immediately dreaded the idea of taking him to a crowded urgent care facility.

“He is non-ambulatory and non-verbal, is immune compromised, and has a doctor phobia, so to go to an urgent care to see a doctor is just very upsetting,” Kim said in a story printed in the MedStar publication Healthy Living. “And I was worried about exposing him to other illnesses.”

Fortunately, Kim remembered that she had read about MedStar eVisits. She went the app store on her phone, downloaded the app, and minutes later was inputting her son’s information and reading through doctors’ profiles.

“It was very easy to upload all of his information and all of my payment information,” she said. Within 20 minutes she was consulting with a physician.

“The physician was amazing,” Kim said. “I showed her pictures via FaceTime on my phone, described his symptoms, and gave her his medical history. She called in a prescription and within two hours he was on his medication.”

When her son’s condition did improve after several days, Kim used the app for the second time and was even able to connect with the same physician. The physician called in a new prescription and an hour later Kim was giving it to her son. “This service is so amazing for me on so many levels,” Kim said. “I am just so grateful that I didn’t have to take him out of my house, and knowing that I have this in my pocket, that gives me great peace of mind.”

eVisits through MedStar offer:

24/7 video access to board-certified medical providers
Access from a tablet, smart phone, or computer
Affordable cost of just $49 or less per visit and many insurance plans are accepted